La Coka Nostra: 'A Brand You Can Trust"

Published 1:00 am, Tuesday, March 17, 2009

"I consider everything I do actually to be rooted in and based in hip-hop. ... There's a small, little contingent of my fans that won't let me stop rapping."

-- Everlast

Sure, it would be easy enough for Everlast to record with his ex-House Of Pain band mates -- Danny Boy and DJ Lethal -- whenever they found time since they all live in Los Angeles.

But when you add New York underground sensation Ill Bill and up-and-coming Boston rapper Slaine to the mix, it presents a logistical problem. A potential solution would be to have the members of hip-hop supergroup La Coka Nostra use the Internet to send bits and pieces of songs to one another.

Not so fast, Everlast said in a March 15 interview from a Columbus, Ohio, tour stop, prior to the group's soundcheck.

"We released music within days of forming (in 2006)," Everlast, aka Mr. White, said of La Coka Nostra. "Every time we released some music, it was because we got together. If we did five songs when we got together, we were like, 'We have to leak at least one right now. People want to hear what's going on with us.' And then all of us living in different towns, our initial agreement was we don't piecemeal this (music). We don't e-mail it back to each other. We get in a room and we make a record. That's one of the reasons it took long to get the whole thing done.

"That's how the first songs were done and that's how the vibe was created and that's how I felt it was fun," he added. "Otherwise, if you send me an e-mail and tell me to write you a verse, man, more than likely I guarantee you you'll be waiting for that (verse) for a while. It's an e-mail. That's what it is to me. That's no song. That's not a session. That's not even a good time. That's an e-mail."

And that's just one reason why La Coka Nostra's debut album -- tentatively due out in June -- lives up to its name, "A Brand You Can Trust." The album will include guest appearances by B-Real, Sick Jacken, Immortal Technique, Bun B,
Snoop Dogg
and ex-La Coka Nostra member
Big Left
-- plus a track produced by Alchemist.

Fans who have been eagerly anticipating La Coka Nostra's debut can catch the group performing songs from its forthcoming album March 23 at
B.B. King
's
Blues Club
& Grill in New York City. The "Bring Tha Noize" tour also includes the Kottonmouth Kings, Blaze Ya Dead Homie, Potluck, Big B and Short Dawg Tha Native.

"We talked to a few majors and they were really talking ridiculous (stuff) about wanting to own merchandise," Everlast said of La Coka Nostra's decision to sign with Suburban Noize Records. "They used to give you money to go out on the road and promote a record. Now, they want a part of your gate when you go out on the road. They want a part of your T-shirts. Major labels are (in trouble). They're just done."

Born
Erik Schrody
on Aug. 18, 1969, Everlast is originally from Hempstead, N.Y. But his father, who worked in construction with drywall, eventually moved the family to the L.A. area, where he helped build parts of Palmdale, Simi Valley and the San Fernando Valley. Everlast's mother raised him and his sister, occasionally working as a manager at restaurants.

Everlast was drawn to the rock-rap fusion of
Run-D.M.C.
, as well as to emcees Rakim and Melle Mel. His all-time favorite rapper is KRS-One.

Everlast began recording with a couple of friends early on.

"I just was making tapes for fun, and one of them knew Ice-T," he recalled. "So they played him this tape and he liked the tape and they said, 'Yeah, it's a white kid.' He flipped out. Next thing I knew, they were like, 'Do you want to make a record?' I was like 17. I said, 'Sure!' "

The "Forever Everlasting" LP came out in 1990 on Warner Brothers and found Everlast touring Europe and the United States with Ice-T. By 1992, though, Everlast formed House Of Pain with DJ Lethal and emcee Danny Boy, who he knew "from a couple high schools."

The self-titled
House Of Pain LP
came out on Tommy Boy and sold upwards of 2 million copies. It included the No. 3 pop hit "Jump Around," produced by DJ Muggs. How much did that first hit change Everlast's life?

"You know, 100 percent," he said. "It made my life everything it's been and (affected it) ever since. It created a big shoe to fill. When you come out and your group's first record is that big, it's like you're almost doomed to fail after that. Luckily, we didn't do that. I think the second record went platinum and the third record, I quit like right when it came out. So I don't know how many it wound up selling.

"It was a good thing," he added. "We were 21, 20 years old and got to travel the world and get money for acting however we wanted to act! I took
Rage Against The Machine
out on their first tour. I took Korn out on their first tour. As far as festivals, probably name them and we did them -- as far as Europe. We didn't do Woodstock, maybe because they didn't book us! But we did Lollapalooza, the second one -- not the whole tour, but we did a string of dates on it."

Solo again in 1998, Everlast scored a No. 1 hit with "What It's Like" from his "
Whitey Ford Sings
The Blues" LP.

"My pops had a guitar around always when I was young, so I always had one around to pick on and would always (mess) around with it," he said. "I never really took it too serious. And then when I left House Of Pain, I was in limbo, didn't know what I was gonna do. And I just went to New York and crashed on my homie Dante Ross' couch for a couple months just trying to get my head out of L.A. and what was going on out there. I started making some records and he heard me picking around with the guitar and singing little tunes at night and he finally talked me into recording what I was doing on the couch. That was 'What It's Like.' "

After finishing his album, Everlast wound up in the hospital, where he had to have heart surgery. Upon his release, he penned another song, "Put Your Lights On." He sent it to Santana, who was looking for songs for his 1999 "Supernatural" LP.

"I kind of forgot about it and then a couple months later, I was doing 'Saturday Night Live' and Santana showed up and was like, 'I really want this song on my album' -- very, very adamant that he could not live without the song on his album," said Everlast, who won a 2000 Grammy for the Santana collaboration, a Top 10 hit.

On and off for the next year, Everlast toured with Santana, playing huge venues like the
Hollywood Bowl
.

"It was a step up for me," Everlast said. "I had a good time."

With three more Top 25 hits -- "Ends," "Black Jesus" and "I Can't Move" -- under his belt, Everlast went on to release three more solo albums. Now, he's splitting time between his solo career and La Coka Nostra, which will play a 40- to 45-minute set in New York.

"(It's) just a good time, man," he said of the show. "Cut loose some energy. The crowds have been eating it up actually. That's what I've been pleased to see. Even the youngsters that I know have no idea who we are, we just try and bring as much energy as we can to the stage. When even a little bit of it gets given back to us, we turn it right back on them and it just becomes a good time. It's a pretty good set. I think people are surprised a little bit -- like, 'Whoa, these dudes are kind of dope.' So that's always a good thing."

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Doors open at 6 p.m., with the show starting at 7 p.m. The venue is at 237 West 42nd St. Tickets are $25. Call Ticketmaster.com at (203) 744-8100.